A Coconut for Spring

One taste that the girls seem to really miss from Colombia is coconut. We have tried several times to buy a coconut at the supermarket, but haven't really followed through. Until Wendy went to the store with Papi, saw a coconut which he agreed to buy, and when she got it home she managed with a hammer to break it open, much to her and Fer's excitement. Here they are, enjoying a little coconut as the first taste of Spring.

Snowflake and Twizzler

In early February (on Groundhog's Day) Fer and I went shopping while Wendy was at gymnastics. We meant to only go to Trader Joe's, but we had a few extra minutes and decided to stop by the pet store next door to visit the animals. Fer was especially interested in seeing the gerbils. Well, it turns out the gerbils were kind of like little rats, but she fell in love with the guinea pigs. After a quick phone consultation with a bemused and confused Papi, we left the store with . . . Snowflake! Fer is so responsible and asks for very little, so it just seemed like the right thing to do to adopt Snowflake. It also has allowed us to have some good conversation about transition to new places and adjustment to a new family, with Snowflake as metaphor.

Wendy loves Snowflake too and of course wants her own guinea pig, but instead we decided to go with a fish for now for her, as she had also been asking about that and we had a tank all set up in her room. We welcomed Twizzler, a red beta-fish, in mid-March. She has been doing a great job feeding Twizzler, and perhaps down the road, after apprenticing in guinea pig care with Fer, we will add another guinea pig to our menagerie.

Here are two pictures of Snowflake, one of top of Happy and one on top of Fer!